Sentence-final particle: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Words that qualify sentences}}

{{Expert needed|linguistics|date=August 2008}}

'''Sentence-final particles''', including [[modal particle]]s,<ref name="Lin1">{{cite bookthesis | last=Lin | first=Huey Hannah | title=Contextualizing Linguistic Politeness in Chinese | url=http://wwwrave.ohiolink.edu/etdetdc/send-pdf.cgi/Lin%20Huey%20Hannah.pdfview?acc_num=osu1109961198 |type=PhD dissertation | year=2005 | publisher=The Ohio State University}}</ref> and interactional particles,<ref name=Morita>{{cite book | last=Morita | first=Emi | title=Negotiation of Contingent Talk:The Japanese interactional particles ''ne'' and ''sa''. | year=2005 | publisher=John Benjamins}}</ref> etc., are minimal [[lexeme]]s (words) that occur at the end of a sentence and that do not carry [[referential]] meaning, but may relate to [[linguistic modality]], [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]] or other [[Pragmatics|pragmatic]] effects. Sentence-final particles are common in [[Chinese language|Chinese]], including particles such as [[Standard Mandarin|Mandarin]] ''le'' 了, ''ne'' 呢, ''ba'' 吧, ''ou'' 哦, ''a'' 啊, ''la'' 啦, ''ya'' 呀, and ''ma'' 嗎/吗, and [[Cantonese]] ''lo'' 囉 and ''ge'' 嘅. These particles act as [[Grammatical modifier|qualifiers]] of the clause or sentence they end. Sentence-final particles are also present in [[Japanese language|Japanese]]<ref name=Fox>{{citation | last=Fox |first=Barbara | year=2007 | title=Principles shaping grammatical practices: an exploration. | publisher=Discourse Studies 9 | page=303}}</ref> and many East Asian languages, such as [[Thai language|Thai]], and especially in languages that have undergone heavy [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]] influence, such as the [[Monguor language]]s.

'''Sentence-final particles''', including [[modal particle]]s,<ref name="Lin1">{{cite book | last=Lin | first=Huey Hannah | title=Contextualizing Linguistic Politeness in Chinese | url=http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi/Lin%20Huey%20Hannah.pdf?acc_num=osu1109961198 | year=2005 | publisher=The Ohio State University}}</ref> interactional particles,<ref name=Morita>{{cite book | last=Morita | first=Emi | title=Negotiation of Contingent Talk:The Japanese interactional particles ''ne'' and ''sa''. | year=2005 | publisher=John Benjamins}}</ref> etc., are minimal [[lexeme]]s (words) that occur at the end of a sentence and that do not carry [[referential]] meaning, but may relate to [[linguistic modality]], [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]] or other [[Pragmatics|pragmatic]] effects. Sentence-final particles are common in [[Chinese language|Chinese]], including particles such as [[Standard Mandarin|Mandarin]] ''le'' 了, ''ne'' 呢, ''ba'' 吧, ''ou'' 哦, ''a'' 啊, ''la'' 啦, ''ya'' 呀, and ''ma'' 嗎/吗, and [[Cantonese]] ''lo'' 囉 and ''ge'' 嘅. These particles act as [[Grammatical modifier|qualifiers]] of the clause or sentence they end. Sentence-final particles are also present in [[Japanese language|Japanese]]<ref name=Fox>{{citation | last=Fox |first=Barbara | year=2007 | title=Principles shaping grammatical practices: an exploration. | publisher=Discourse Studies 9 | page=303}}</ref> and many East Asian languages, such as [[Thai language|Thai]], and especially in languages that have undergone heavy [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]] influence, such as the [[Monguor language]]s.

==Examples==

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* "isn't it" in "The plane is here, isn't it?"

All but the first are tag questions. Notice how when the main sentence is affirmative, the tag question is negative, and vice versa.<ref>http://spanish.about.com/od/sentencestructure/g/question_tag_gl.htm Page is about Spanish, but mentions tag questions in English</ref>

===Portuguese===

[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] uses several sentence-final particles. For example:

* "né": mainly used to seek confirmation or agreement. It may also be used to denote sarcasm or to express that a statement is obvious.

* "sim": mainly used to emphasize a statement. It's often translated as "do" as in: "eu sei, sim." = "I do know."

* "lá": used with some verbs to emphasize a negation as in "sei lá." = "I don't know."

* "já": has many different uses, one of them is to express surprise.

* "ó": rarely used in writing, but common in speech. Used to draw the listener's attention to something.

* "aí": has many different uses, one of them is to soften a request or to make a sentence sound more colloquial.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/6945899|title=Aí como partícula modal do português|journal=In: Mota, Jacyra (Ed.): Atas do 1O Congresso Internacional da Associação Brasileira de Lingüística: Vol. 2: Comunicações, Disquete 06: Lexicologia e Semântica, Semantic, File: Comunic03. Salvador: Instituto de Letras da Universidade Federal da Bahia|date=January 1997|last1=Johnen|first1=Thomas}}</ref>

===Spanish===

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* "no" (''no'') in "Le toca pasar la aspiradora, ¿no?" (''It's your (formal) turn to vacuum, no?'')

* "no es verdad" (''isn't that right'') in "Eres de Perú, ¿no es verdad?" (''You're (informal) from Peru, isn't that right?'')

Note that in Spanish, the question marks are placed around the tag question, and not around the entire sentence (although English only uses the single final question mark, it is implied that the entire sentence, and not just the tag, is the question).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://spanish.about.com/od/sentencestructure/g/question_tag_gl.htm|title = That's a Tag Question, Isn't It?}}</ref>

== References ==

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* [https://depts.washington.edu/icstll39/abstracts/icstll39_dai_zhaoming_paper_eng.doc The Typological Value of the Chinese Modality Particles] (.doc)

[[Category:Generative syntax]]

[[Category:Syntax]]